Italy's Newly Elected Leader Calls Iraq War `Grave Error' In Speech

May 19, 2006|The New York Times

ROME — Romano Prodi, the new prime minister, called the war in Iraq a "grave error" on Thursday in a speech in which he set Italy on a different, more conventionally European, course from that of his predecessor, Silvio Berlusconi.

"Our country needs a strong jolt," Prodi said in an address to the upper house of parliament on his first full day in office.

Prodi reined Italy back from Berlusconi's close relationship with President Bush and adopted a more skeptical stance on the war in Iraq.

"We consider the war in Iraq and the occupation of the country a grave error," he said, adding that Italy would continue to value a strong relationship with Washington. "It has not resolved, but complicated, the situation of security. Terrorism has found a new base in Iraq."

Prodi's plan for Iraq does not seem to differ substantially from the one Berlusconi put into place under pressure during the election campaign.

Berlusconi had pledged to withdraw all Italian troops by the end of the year. While Prodi has called for an immediate withdrawal, he repeated the past qualification that it would not happen until after consultations with Iraqi authorities.